


The Monster at the Beginning of this Street

by Amy



Category: Sesame Street (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-05-07 20:38:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5470121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amy/pseuds/Amy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><strong>Sesame Street Elementary Primary Source Project, Topic #3</strong>: Monsters didn't always live on Sesame Street. When did monsters first come here? What were their lives like? Interview someone who knows Sesame Street's history and find out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Monster at the Beginning of this Street

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ellen_fremedon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ellen_fremedon/gifts).



>   
>  **Sesame Street Elementary Primary Source Project**  
>  **Topic #3**  
>  Monsters didn't always live on Sesame Street. When did monsters first come here? What were their lives like? Interview someone who knows Sesame Street's history and find out.

* * *

Grover's parents were not the first monsters to come to Sesame Street. When they moved here, there was already a thriving monster community. They didn't remember a time it ever wasn't. So Grover couldn't interview them.

He tried to talk to some of their friends, but all of them remembered Sesame Street as having always been full of monsters. So did Elmo's mommy and Telly's daddy and all the other grown-up monsters Grover had ever met.

To find the first monster, Grover would have to talk to more than just monsters.

* * *

"When did you move to Sesame Street?" Grover asked. He was sitting in Hooper's Store, eating lunch with the most iconic resident he knew, pen poised for a perfect primary source response.

"I've lived here all my life," Big Bird said. He sucked at the straw of his birdseed milkshake.

"Do you know the first monster to move to Sesame Street?"

Big Bird shook his head. "There have always been monsters on Sesame Street," he said. "Monsters and people and honkers and tweedles and birds and snuffleupaguses and-"

"But there had to be a first," Grover said.

"Well, I am only six," Big Bird pointed out. "You might need to ask someone older. It's too bad Mr. Looper isn't around to help."

"It seems like you have been here forever," Grover said to him.

Big Bird sucked on his straw harder, slurping the last remaining bird seed up into his beak.

* * *

One two three, four five, six seven eight, nine ten, eleven twelve!

_One._

* * *

"The first monster?" Ernie said.

Grover didn't come to their apartment that often, but he wasn't surprised to see it looked exactly like it had the last time he'd visited. "Yes please," he said.

Bert didn't look up from his checkers game with Bernice, but Ernie seemed happy to talk. "The very first?"

"Yes."

"The one before any other monsters on all of Sesame Street?"

"Yes."

Ernie nodded thoughtfully. "I have no idea."

Grover frowned. "But you have lived here a very long time."

"Yes," Ernie said. "Bert and I have lived here for a very long time, and there have always been monsters. That's part of what makes Sesame Street, Sesame Street."

"But there had to be a first monster!" Grover said. "Why doesn't anyone know who the first monster was?"

* * *

"Because Sesame Street is full of immigrants," Luis said as Grover sat in the fix-it shop, a pen tapping methodically against his lower lip. This project was harder than he expected.

"What is an immigrant?" Grover asked.

"Someone who moves from a far-away place," Maria said.

"Someone who maybe doesn't speak the same language or have the same tradition," Luis said, "but who wants a better life."

"Monsters speak English," Grover pointed out.

"Not all immigrants speak different languages," Luis said. "But the ones who do can help their neighbors learn to speak them too."

"Tu me gustas," Grover replied carefully, just like in the song Elmo told him Luis had taught him.

Luis had a really nice smile.

"Sesame Street is very lucky," Maria said. "Immigrants could go anywhere in the world but they choose Sesame Street."

"So the first monster to move to Sesame Street must have been very special," Grover said.

"Every monster to move to Sesame Street is very special," Maria said. "Did you know that if we didn't live on Sesame Street Gabi might not have known any monsters until she went to college?"

"But I am not in college and Gabi is my friend," Grover said.

"That's one reason we're very glad we live here," Maria said.

"I am very glad you live here too," Grover said.

Maria's smile was pretty great also.

* * *

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.

One, one, one, one, let's sing a song of one. How many is one?

* * *

"I've lived at 123 Sesame Street for a very long time," Gordon said. "I remember seeing nearly everyone move here."

"I remember when you first showed up, Grover," Susan said. "You were an adorable baby monster."

"Well, of course I was," Grover said. "But I was not the first monster on Sesame Street."

"No, you weren't," agreed Gordon. "There were lots of monsters here before you."

"Sesame Street changes a lot," Susan said, "but it always feels like it's here and now. That's part of the magic of Sesame Street. Everyone's so important that it's hard to tell you who's first."

"Who was here before you came?" Grover asked.

"Mr. Hooper was here," Gordon said. "He'd had his store since the fifties. And Bob has lived here a long time."

"And Oscar was here by then, of course," Susan said. "People said his trash can kept the property values down."

"What?" Grover said.

"Oscar moved here from Grouchytown," Gordon explained. "Terrible place. Most Grouches live there their whole lives, but Oscar decided to come here."

"Oscar was an immigrant?" Grover said.

"Oscar didn't care what anyone said, he just wanted to be unhappy," Susan said. "And there was nowhere that made him less happy than the happiest street on earth."

"Excuse me," Grover said politely. "But I think I just realized something very important."

* * *

One of these things is not like the others,  
One of these things just doesn't belong,  
Can you tell which thing is not like the others  
By the time I finish my song?

* * *

Grover had purpose now. He rapped on Oscar's trash can once, then once more. He waited and then banged on the can again.

On the third knock, Oscar opened his trash can just enough to say "Scram!" and then slam it shut again.

But Grover wasn't giving up that easily.

"The number of the day is not three, you know," Grover said firmly as he knocked again.

This time Oscar opened his can immediately. "What do you want?"

" _You_ were the first monster to live on Sesame Street," Grover said.

"I'm not a monster," Oscar said. "I'm a grouch. Go away."

"But Sesame Street was only for humans and then you came," Grover said. "And then monsters started to move in."

"I said scram, kid."

"You know who the first monster was."

"Maybe I do," Oscar said, "and maybe I don't."

"If it wasn't for you, monsters would never have lived on Sesame Street," Grover said. "If not for you, I would not be able to have milkshakes with Big Bird or play checkers with Ernie and Bert, and Gabi would not have met monsters until college, and Gordon and Susan would not be able to answer my questions."

"If it wasn't for you," Oscar countered, "I could be reading _Trash Gordon_ to Slimey."

"I think I would like to hug you, Oscar," Grover said.

Oscar slammed his trash can lid shut, and this time Grover heard the lock click.

"You can hide all you want," Grover called loudly. "I know what you did for Sesame Street. Even if you don't let me interview you, Oscar, I know you are a hero."

He knew that would make Oscar miserable. At least, he hoped it would. Miserable was what grouches liked best. And Oscar was the number-one grouch on the Street.

* * *

> Sesame Street is a very nice neighborhood. We have a corner store and a basketball court and a Laundromat. We even have a superhero of our very own, but he is very good at keeping his secret identity so I cannot tell you anything about who he is without his cape.
> 
> If you have never been to Sesame Street, you may not know that we are a very special neighborhood. We have all different kinds of monsters- and birds and people too! Everyone is welcome at Sesame Street. And everyone wants to come visit! It is so popular there is even a song about how to get there.
> 
> But it turns out it did not start with a monster at all. It started with a Grouch.

**Author's Note:**

> Songs and sketches referenced for the number of the day:  
> \+ [Pinball counting song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOaZbaPzdsk) (which somehow does not have the number one in this compilation, but I assume it's there in spirit).  
> \+ [Song of One](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsJRlfjYo9Y)  
> \+ [One of These Things](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJKTssF2OMY)  
> The song Grover is referring to in the Luis and Maria section is [Tu Me Gustas](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d_-tahlX0o), which Luis and Elmo sing together.  
> And let's not forget [the song Grover mentions that tells you to get to Sesame Street](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmcdBnj4ZOg) .


End file.
